Inspections of a specimen in the field of clinical tests include inspection of immune serum, biochemical inspection, inspection of blood coagulation and the like. These inspections have been conducted separately with specialized apparatuses, and it sometimes takes time for the installation of a specimen, the operation for requesting analysis in each apparatus, the check of the output results, the management of the results and the like.
Moreover, for inspection of blood coagulation, there are a method for detecting the period from the activation of a coagulation factor to the precipitation of fibrin optically or physically by examining the consistency and a method for detecting a marker involved in blood coagulation as a change in the quantity of the transmitted light. Thus, different detectors are required for the methods. Here, the former is called coagulation time measurement, and the latter is called absorbance measurement.
In view of the rapidness of the inspection and the simplification of the management of the apparatus, automatic analysis apparatuses capable of conducting a plurality of inspections with different measurement styles consistently have been provided. With respect to the biochemical automatic analysis apparatus described in PTL 1, a method for conducting a plurality of inspections by a common inspection mechanism is proposed to miniaturize the apparatus and to improve the efficiency. In this method, inspection of immune serum or biochemical inspection is conducted in the inspection area which is also used for inspection of blood coagulation. Moreover, PTL 2 discloses an automatic analysis apparatus capable of conducting biochemical inspection and inspection of blood coagulation.